Multicultural Broadcasting is a media company based in New York City founded by Chinese-American businessman Arthur Liu. It caters mostly to the
Asian American
Asian Americans are Americans of Asian ancestry (including naturalized Americans who are immigrants from specific regions in Asia and descendants of such immigrants). Although this term had historically been used for all the indigenous people ...
community and owns television and radio stations in several of the top markets in
multiple languages
Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all Eu ...
.
The company was founded as Multicultural Radio Broadcasting Inc. (MRBI) in 1982 with an initial business in United States radio broadcasting industry. To this day, it remains the largest Asian American owned media group in the U.S.
Air America controversy
In 2004, two weeks after Air America Radio's debut, it was pulled off the Multicultural radio stations in the Chicago and Santa Monica markets due to a contract dispute. Air America alleged that Multicultural sold time on their Los Angeles station to both AAR and another party, and claimed that was why they stopped payment on checks due Multicultural while AAR investigated.
Multicultural noted that Air America bounced a check and claimed they were owed in excess of $1 million. Air America Radio filed a complaint in
New York Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in the New York State Unified Court System. (Its Appellate Division is also the highest intermediate appellate court.) It is vested with unlimited civ ...
, charging
breach of contract
Breach of contract is a legal cause of action and a type of civil wrong, in which a binding agreement or bargained-for exchange is not honored by one or more of the parties to the contract by non-performance or interference with the other party ...
and was briefly granted an injunction to restore the network on WNTD in Chicago. On April 20, the network announced the dispute had been settled, and Air America's last day of broadcast on WNTD was April 30. The New York Supreme Court ultimately concluded that the injunction was improvidently entered and that Air America Radio's court action was without merit, dismissing Air America's complaint and awarding over $250,000 in damages and attorneys' fees to Multicultural. According to a subsequent lawsuit filed by Multicultural, Air America Radio never paid the sums ordered by the court.
KALI (AM)
KALI (900 AM) is a radio station licensed to West Covina, California, with transmitter in Chino. The station is owned by Multicultural Broadcasting and broadcasts Mandarin Chinese and other ethnic programming.
Historically, KALI was KGRB, a big ...
Pomona
Pomona may refer to:
Places Argentina
* Pomona, Río Negro
Australia
* Pomona, Queensland, Australia, a town in the Shire of Noosa
* Pomona, New South Wales, Australia
Belize
* Pomona, Belize, a municipality in Stann Creek District
Mexico ...
WNMA
WNMA (1210 AM) is a radio station licensed to Miami Springs, Florida, serving the Miami/Fort Lauderdale area. It airs a Spanish-language Christian format known as "Radio Oasis 1210". The station is owned by Multicultural Broadcasting and cur ...
WEXY
WEXY (1520 AM broadcasting, AM) is a radio station broadcasting an urban contemporary gospel radio format, format, with some paid brokered programming on religion, health and other topics. city of license, Licensed to Wilton Manors, Florida, Unit ...
Glen Burnie
Glen Burnie is an Unincorporated area, unincorporated town and census-designated place (CDP) in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, Anne Arundel County, Maryland, United States. It is a suburb of Baltimore. The population of Glen Burnie was 67,639 at ...
Lynn
Lynn may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Lynn (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters
* Lynn (surname)
* The Lynns, a 1990s American country music duo consisting of twin sisters Peggy and Patsy Lynn
* Lynn ( ...
Paterson Paterson may refer to:
People
* Paterson (surname)
* Paterson (given name)
Places
Australia
*Paterson, New South Wales
*Paterson River, New South Wales
* Division of Paterson, an electoral district in New South Wales
*Paterson, Queensland, a lo ...
Ferris
Ferris may refer to:
__NOTOC__ People and fictional characters
* Ferris (name), a list of people and fictional characters with either the given name or surname
* Ferris MC, stage name of German rapper Sascha Reimann (born 1973)
* Ferris Bueller, ...
KCHN
KCHN (1050 AM) is a Houston, Texas, area radio station, licensed to Brookshire, Texas serving mostly Asian listeners with broadcasts in a mix of Indian, Chinese, Mandarin, Vietnamese and Pakistani languages. Sports programming includes coverage ...
Surrey, British Columbia
Surrey is a city in British Columbia, Canada. It is located south of the Fraser River on the Canada–United States border. It is a member municipality of the Metro Vancouver regional district and metropolitan area. Mainly a suburban city, Surr ...
Canton, Ohio
Canton () is a city in and the county seat of Stark County, Ohio. It is located approximately south of Cleveland and south of Akron in Northeast Ohio. The city lies on the edge of Ohio's extensive Amish country, particularly in Holmes and ...
Durham, North Carolina
Durham ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County, North Carolina, Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County, North Carolina, Orange County and Wake County, North Carol ...
) on December 20, 2006, followed by WMFP ( Boston) and WSAH (
Bridgeport, Connecticut
Bridgeport is the List of municipalities in Connecticut, most populous city and a major port in the U.S. state of Connecticut. With a population of 148,654 in 2020, it is also the List of cities by population in New England, fifth-most populous ...
). Prior to that, the five stations switched to a 24-hour infomercial format. The Sunbelt Television-owned KHIZ (now KILM) ( Barstow, California) has been absorbed into Multicultural's portfolio upon FCC approval, however, it remained an affiliate of SonLife Broadcasting Network.
On November 5, 2008; Multicultural Broadcasting has suffered financial defaults of $135 million in loans and the company has headed into a trust under the care and feeding of Lee W. Shubert for the purposes of selling off assets and paying off their creditors. Stations included KCNS, WMFP, WOAC, and WRAY-TV.Multicultural group going into breakup mode - Radio/Television Business Report ' (released November 5, 2008) WOAC was the first to be picked up on June 24, 2009 by Tri-State Christian Television, through Radiant Life Ministries. WRAY-TV was sold in October 2009. In January 2011, KCNS, WMFP, and WSAH were sold to NRJ TV, LLC. KILM was the only remaining TV station in the Multicultural group until 2018 when Ion Media purchased it and converted it to an
Ion Life
Ion Plus is an American free linear television network owned by the Katz Broadcasting subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company that formerly operated as a broadcast television network until February 28, 2021. The network originally launched in 20 ...
affiliate.
In 2012 Arthur Liu sold its headquarters at 449 Broadway, relocating executive offices and studios to 40 Exchange Place in the Financial district.